Her son was dead, killed in a tragic accident only a few days before. She sat in the front pew of the church, listening quietly as the minister spoke at the memorial service, her face composed, one might almost say serene.
When the final prayer ended, friends filed by the casket, hugging members of the family through tears. Later it was said, “They are taking it so well.” “His mother is a real brick.” At the house afterward, the parents greeted dozens of people with smiles and words of encouragement.
A few days later her husband found his wife sitting on the kitchen floor, banging her fists, and sobbing uncontrollably. The woman others thought was so brave was sick to the core of her being with an emotion common to every living person.
Billy Graham told this story in his book, “Facing Death-and the Life After.” Grief hits us so hard.
Suffering mentally, emotionally, and spiritually invade every moment of Job’s life. His grief overwhelms him, and he finally spoke. For seven days Job’s friends sat with him on that ash heap. His weeping would occasionally turn into sobs. Finally, his grief demanded words and he began to speak.
The biggest part of the book of Job is his expression of grief and the response of his friends.
All of them, Job and his friends, struggle. They all face this intense struggle with hearts filled with pain. They ask the hard questions. Each seeks to understand what they are facing. Between them Job and his friends raise questions that have been asked throughout time when painful hearts cry out.
This week’s blog and the next two weeks will seek answers to questions about God and about the struggles. We will hear the questions about God: Why isn’t God fair, why is God so distant, and does prayer have an effect. Questions about facing the struggles include can a man be clean, are our days limited, can a man be angry with God, and how do I face death.
Questions rage in us. We understand about grief that, “we don’t know where we are going, but we are on the way.” The process slaps us in the face. “How could a good God make an evil world.” “Does God really care?” Our hearts ache and our thoughts race.
These are real questions. They are more than just theological exercises. The pain bubbles to the surface and the questions pour forth. As we face the most difficult seasons in our lives, we dare not condemn such questions. They are normal and God allows them.
Today we deal with the most basic question. In so many ways this question underlies all the others. The foundational question echoing across waiting rooms, emergency rooms, and funeral homes comes from Job’s mouth. He cries, “Why?”
You are a blessed person if your heart has not cried out that simple three letter word. Only the most callous person would look askance at the person crying thus from their heart. After hearing Job’s questions these three blogs will seek some answers from Scripture.
Even while embarking on this part of our study, I issue a word of understanding and caution. When a person is enduring these seasons, they do NOT need our theological answers. In the darkest hours, the best solution is not to solve the problems, but to listen and care.
However, there is a time when our hearts become open, and our minds seek truth. These three blogs are the best effort of this author to find the answers our hearts demand.
People typically deal with this painful question in three ways.
First, people sometimes believe that suffering has no meaning at all.
Second, others seek an explanation from God. Their faith wavers but does not vanish. They seek some reason. God is the only who can answer. Unfortunately, the answers do not always come.
Finally, others simply resign themselves to the loss. The loss is accepted even while we long for vindication from someone or something sympathetic to his cause.
As we pick up the story of Job, his friends have now been sitting with him for seven days. It was a common experience in Job’s days for persons to come to share the grief with a person. Those who come alongside would remain silent until the grieving person chose to speak. We do well to follow this ancient tradition.
It is hard work to resist words during these times. We must stop our mouths and our minds. We tend to listen merely so we can decide what to say next.
They did that for seven long days. He has sat quietly for these days. His excruciating pain and anguish overwhelm him. He needs space to think, and they give it to him.
It is, therefore, expected that the first voice we hear from the ash heap is Job’s. And he does speak. His heart makes four cries in chapter three. They all derive from one simple word. One three letter word, “Why?”
“Why?” Some would say that a believer should not ask such a question. A careful examination of Scripture reveals that it is not at all uncommon for God’s servants to struggle with “why?”
- David is called a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22) Yet he is found asking some difficult questions. (See Psalm 3:1-2, 6:1-3, 10:1-2-ff) He wonders if God’s unfailing love had vanished forever.
- Jeremiah, one of God’s trusted prophets, asked “why” in Jeremiah 15:18. He believed that God had deceived him.
- Moses had asked why God would treat His servants so badly. Numbers 11:11-14 (“He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.”)
- Habakkuk, another prophet of God, cried the same Habakkuk 1:2 (“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?”)
Job Cursed the Day of His Birth (3:1)
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said: 3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ [1]
He wishes God would take His hand off him and crush him. (Job 6:8) Chapter 3:1-10 contains several words called “jussive words.” These are wish words. He wishes He had not been born.
Job: Why Didn’t I die (3:11-19)
11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? 12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? 13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest 14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins, 15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? 17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. 18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout. 19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.
The grief overwhelms Job. He is venting his spleen. Pain has taken its toll. Philosophy has failed. He wonders why he was placed on his father’s knee. This was an act symbolizing blessing.
He sighs before he speaks. All he wants is death. His heart screams, “Why did I have to live.” Death would be better.
Job: Why Can’t I Understand (3:20-23)
20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, 21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, 22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? 23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Job: Why do I Have Such Struggles (3:24-26)
24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. 25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”
He knows no peace. He groans and gets no rest.
Towards an answer to the “Why” question.
People wrestle with questions of logic and reason. How do we make sense of the struggle? They fall victim to a simple syllogism:
- A good God would destroy evil.
- An all-powerful God could destroy it.
- Evil is not destroyed.
- Therefore…
The answers from that point in the syllogism can vary but all are less than satisfactory. To illustrate both satisfactory and unsatisfactory answers I will share an illustration I have developed. First let me define four presuppositions.
In this graph I illustrate that there are four foundational truths. Each truth is foundational to a healthy answer to the problem of suffering and evil. All are Biblically true.
Presupposition one: God is. He exists. If there is no God, there is no problem. Things happen. People live and die with no connection to anything real.’
Presupposition two: God is powerful. At any moment He can break forth in any way He chooses. He is omnipotent, able to do anything. The only limits God has are those self-imposed. He chooses not to lie or to tempt. Fifty-six times in Scripture God is called “Almighty.”
Presupposition three: God is good. He is altogether good, consistently good in both character and behavior.
Presupposition four: Evil is real. We may also use the words suffering, pain and loss. These really exist.
These four presuppositions form the boundaries of every discussion about the problem of evil and suffering.
People give many answers that are simply incorrect. Consider the following graph. The red words demonstrate answers that are outside of the acceptable boundaries for answering the “Why?” question.
Any of these four phrases would be inaccurate Biblically. All are false ideas. There may be variations but basically any answer that denies the presuppositions will lead to disastrous theology and leave a person broken and with an empty heart.
If God does not exist, the whole discussion is irrelevant. The irony is that some who would deny the existence of God while asking how He could allow suffering.
If God is not powerful enough to do something about evil and suffering, He can hardly be defined as God. Bad things happen and He is unable to address them. He would be dead, irrelevant, bored, or uninvolved.
If God is not good, He is merely human in nature. He is neutral, capricious, sadistic, untrustworthy, or unfair. A wicked God is also not God.
Finally, if we deny evil is real, we appear foolish. There is no realistic way to deny the existence of evil and suffering. We are broken people, with broken bodies, living in a broken world.
Finally, allow me to propose multiple reasons that fall within the box. Each of these are possible reasons why the painful things happen in our life. Two absolutely critical thoughts must be taken into consideration before we seek answers.
First, we must note that any effort to explain or understand evil and suffering should be done when the grieving person is ready to address the question. We simply MUST not try to force a theological answer upon people who are grieving. Those efforts are usually done to help the person talking, not the person grieving. We seek to assuage our own questions by answering for those who are not ready for the debate.
Second, the suffering and evil defy one simple explanation and we may NEVER be able to know which answer applies. Any individual’s situation may have multiple answers that may realistically apply. We do well to accept that we do not know.
Possible answers for the problem of human suffering include:
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- Evil is the Result of Human Sin. Sometimes we cannot deny that suffering and evil come from the sinfulness of man. People abuse others. People commit criminal activity, even murder. Those things come from the ability people must choose, even when those choices bring harm.
We might wish God would not allow those choices, but we certainly do not want him to limit our choices. He created us with the opportunity to do wrong. He does not create that evil.
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- Evil is Punishment. There are times when people receive punishment for wrongs that they have committed. We do well NOT to assume this reason for human suffering.
There is a flawed question that we must understand. People ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people.” The flaw? Who is genuinely good? Which person does not have sin in their lives. If God punished every sin quickly and harshly, all would be in serious trouble. We may truly say, “Because of the sin in me, why don’t I suffer more?”
Examples of this truth are myriad. God’s people in the Old Testament often bore the consequences from their sin. From the golden calf to the exile in a foreign land, God allowed them to suffer because of the sin. Even in the grace of the New Covenant, Ananias and Sapphira suffered because of their sin.
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- Evil is A Way to Provide Teaching (Didactic) Sometimes bad things occur in our lives because we are being taught some lesson. The Apostle Paul cried out three times for God to remove the thorn in the flesh. While we cannot know without question what affliction Paul struggled, we know it was painful. Paul wanted it gone. Jesus answers Paul with an emphatic “no.” The affliction would stay in place to teach Paul a lesson.
We may not like the lessons God desires to teach us. But because God is good, and loving we know that His lessons are for our good and His glory.
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- Evil is a Mystery. This is a simple possibility and applies in many of the situations. Sometimes we simply do not know. God says, “My ways are not your ways.” We simply cannot understand.
- Evil is Viewed in Light of the End Times (Eschatologically). We do understand that rewards are given at the end of the journey. We keep one eye on our struggle and one on eternity.
- Evil Serves a Greater Good. (Thus, vicariously) Sometimes bad things happen to one person to accomplish good in the lives of others. Joseph was thrown into a well, sold as a slave, and cast into an Egyptian prison. He knew that he had not sinned. At the end of his life, he said they intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.
Paul and Silas did not request to be in a Philippian jail. Beaten and chained the men sang from their cell. The result of their suffering was salvation for the jailer and his family. Would they have counted their suffering worthwhile. Undoubtably.
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- Finally, suffering is God’s means of equipping us to minister to others. When we do not know the “Why” of our suffering sometimes we are left only with the knowledge that God can use the suffering to help us serve others. God will use your pain to help others.
THREE RESPONSES TO SUFFERING
- Acknowledge that God does allow things to happen in our lives. In this world we will have trouble. (John 16:33) Do not be surprised when struggles come. They are inevitable.
- Remember that regardless of what happens nothing can separate you from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39) No matter what happens you can be sure of this; God is with you.
- Recognize that God’s ways are bigger than ours. (Isaiah 55:8-9) His ways are unsearchable, past our finding out. (Romans 11:33)
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Job 3:1–3.
